WVU Parkersburg Board honors campus police officer Al Collins

At its December meeting, the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Board of Governors recognized the college’s campus police officer, Al Collins, for his work to ensure safety and security of students, faculty, staff and visitors. The Board awarded Collins with a certificate and a check for $50.

Many colleges, businesses and organizations are now implementing ALICE training, which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate. Under the training, teachers and students are taught that in the event of an emergency such as an active shooter or other dangerous intruder, they should react in a manner that best suits their individual situation. Rather than performing a lockdown, ALICE recommends that individuals evacuate the area if possible and then call emergency responders.

Collins became a certified ALICE trainer in Spring 2015. Since that time he has helped to rewrite portions of the WVU Parkersburg Safety Plan and begun training of faculty and staff in these new safety procedures. Recent events prompted the college to intensify its training efforts.

After the Umpqua Community College shooting, Collins worked with marketing and communications staff to develop a short training video that has now been shown in every classroom. In the video, Collins encourages the campus community to “take off,” “take cover” or “take action” in the instance of an active shooting. The video was played nearly 200 times on the first day it was posted to the WVU Parkersburg website.

“Student safety is our top priority,” said Dr. Fletcher Lamkin, WVU Parkersburg president. “We are proud of Al for the work he has done to ensure that our campus is aware of the necessary steps to take should such a tragic event occur here.”